(It was a yucky day, but these fast girls--Susan Williams, Jan Guenther, Julie Hull, Erin Farrens and Sarah Viamonte--were having fun anyway. Photo by YndeCam.com.)
(Shoreview, MN - August 8, 2009) The weather wasn't ideal for racing. Though not unprecedented--were you at Life Time Fitness in 2002, or Green Lake in '05?--it was close enough.Lightning forced the cancellation of the swim. Later, a violent, visibility-obliterating rainstorm forced, for many, the cancellation of the run. Winds gusting to a guzillion miles-per-hour wreaked havoc with the venue.
But triathletes laugh in the face of such adversity.
Well, some of them did.
In truth, only 40-44M champ Jey Carlson, who may have been heavily medicated, actually laughed. And everyone else made the most of it, because that's what triathletes do.
Endurance athletes endure.
Defending T-Man champ Cathy Yndestad almost had to endure her first loss to a fellow Minnesotan since Turtleman '06. Deciding that losing on her birthday--she turned 31 on Sunday--was unacceptable, Cathy blasted out of T2 in pursuit of Julie Hull, whose monster bike split (51:50 for 21.5 miles!) landed her in transition 1:40 ahead of the Birthday Girl.
Making up 100 seconds in a five mile run is a tall order. She had to outpace Hull by at least 20 seconds-per-mile in order to win. She prayed that Julie wasn't clicking off 6:40s.
Adrenaline and a throbbing internal desire to win summoned within her a gear she never had to use before, one that could come in handy when she toes the line at Nationals in two weeks.
Cathy Yndestad did previal. And with 48 seconds to spare. It would be a happy birthday after all, and career win #39 was in the books.
Hull, her thighs tumescent and heavy from her 25 mph ride, held on for 2nd, her best finish ever at Turtleman.
Julie will be one of the favorites next weekend at Pigman Half, a race she won in 2007 and placed 2nd (to Cathy Yndestad) at last year. It's certainly reasonable to assume that she'll have a sizable lead going into T2.
Places 3rd through fifth at Turtleman went to Waconia Elite champion Brook Mutzenberger and super-masters Jan Guenther, a four-time T-Man winner, and Mary Beth Tuttle, who was victorious here in 2007.
Due to the time trial wave start system, Devon Palmer wasn't the first to cross the finish line, the mercurial Patrick Parish was, but he (Devon) did race fast enough to come away with the win, his 4th of a season. Palmer, Parish and 3rd-through-5th Matt Payne, Sam Hauck and Dennis Dane clearly demonstrated on Sunday, as they have all season, that the future of men's multisport racing in our region is in good hands.
